In the May eBriefing, we noted that the Consultants of Norman Broadbent’s Consumer & Retail practice meet over two thousand industry leaders a year. Amongst such numbers, clients often want to know how we recognise the talent that will make a difference to their business.
The executive search process itself plays no small part in answering that question; for us, there are two real keys:
Understanding “what good looks like”
- This can vary enormously from one individual to another, and even from one year to another.
- There should be no assumptions “what good looks like”: every hiring manager has a different set of experiences and needs that will shape his or her view on a hire, meaning that a thorough briefing with all stakeholders for every search is essential.
- Asking the right questions during the briefing to understand the full context for each hire is vital to get a true understanding of the skills, personality and background needed – we often tell our clients that the more insight they are able to give us, the better our results will be.
Being clear on context
- Different types of leader are needed for different situations; whilst we never generalise, we have found that there are a number of high level parameters which will impact what sort of leader we are looking for.
- When hiring for a family-owned business where the family is still closely involved in the running of the business, the successful hire will often be a leader who has worked, and thrived, within a similar dynamic previously; the same holds true for founder-run businesses
- The leap from leading within a large corporate to leading within an SME is significant; it is rare that leaders can pass seamlessly from one to the other – often, an interim step within a mid-sized business is wise!
Within the Consumer & Retail practice, we know that the quality of insight that our clients give us will be fundamental to the success of the work that we deliver for them, and we are not afraid to probe and question until we are happy that we have the full picture: for one food industry search earlier this year, we had to conduct separate briefings with three different groups of stakeholders before we had a true understanding of what was needed in a new Managing Director. Where needed, we can also deploy our Research & Insight team to provide additional due diligence prior to hiring.
When it comes the leaders themselves, there are some common traits that we have learnt to associate with highly effective leaders:
Communication
- They are able to articulate complex concepts in simple language, using illustrations, comparisons and stories that bring their points to life in such a way that anyone can understand them.
- Operating on a “no-surprises” basis, frequent and transparent communication at all levels – with teams, peers and managers – is second nature.
Talent development
- Succession is on their mind, often from early on within their tenure; they are usually able to point to more than once example of having developed a direct report to become their eventual successor; moreover, they often remain in touch as mentors and confidants to former direct reports for many years, meaning that they have strong and broad networks.
- Development and empowerment of their own teams is of the utmost importance for them; once trust is established and a general framework/guiding vision set, they will devolve plenty of responsibility down into their teams and will let their direct reports make their own decisions within this.
- They are unafraid of hiring brilliant people who will challenge and sometimes eventually outrank them; they will also recognise when to let them go to continue their development within another business.
Ability to balance long and short-term priorities
- They will make difficult decisions drawing on both long- and short-term implications; these will sometimes clash and in these instances they will stand their ground and argue their case.
- They are able to engage different groups of stakeholders, both internally and externally, around a challenging agenda for the longer term good of a business and its broader ecosystem – Unilever’s recently retired Paul Polman is a good example.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the overwhelming trait found within the most successfully leaders is their humanity and humility – it is our privilege to encounter so many of our best and brightest leaders through the day-to-day business of Norman Broadbent.
If you would like to discuss this article further, learn more about The Norman Broadbent Group, or discuss specific people or organisational challenges, please do not hesitate to contact James Peskett via
james.peskett@normanbroadbent.com for an initial confidential discussion.